Grammo woke up feeling the pain in his stomach. His whole body didn't feel all that great. His shoulders felt awkward as his hands were tied behind his back. He felt his wrist ache from the rope burn. The taste of blood in his mouth woke him up.
His eyes were blurry at first, but even then, it was clear that someone familiar was looking back at him.
"...Griff…" Grammo weakly muttered.
Judging from the tall over-arching trees that he could see climbing over the wall, Grammo guessed that they weren't inside the school. He looked back and saw a large building that seemed similar to the design and architecture of the school building. However, he had never seen this part before.
"You don't know this place?" Griff smiled and asked. "Good. No one knows this place. This is my own little kingdom and the only rule was that everyone bows down to me."
Griff was sitting in his own throne made out of disassembled wooden chairs and faculty desks. It was large enough for two people to sit in. But of course, only Griff can sit on his throne. The top of the throne was made out of wooden planks that were intentionally sharpened and cut to resemble spikes. If that wasn't enough, then rusted nails and bent steel rods poked out of those planks resembling thorns.
He wasn't kidding. Griff made this place his own and made his mark. Grammo looked around to see if he could find any escape, but he was horrified to see that there was none. In front of him was the corner of the school wall with no doors or gates. And over that wall was a wild untamed forest in the middle of nowhere. Behind him was the school building with no doors, only windows on the second floor. He was enclosed in a prison and Griff and his lackeys were his jailers.
"Not a lot of people know that this place exists. But that's because this is the very back of the building. You can't access this from anywhere. The only way to reach this place is through that wall over there."
Griff pointed to the wall behind him, which was about 3 meters tall. The wall was as smooth as granite, with no ledges to hang onto. This was designed to make sure that no animal or trespasser would be able to easily climb over the wall.
"No one can climb over the wall."
Griff snapped his fingers and three students, Jack, Buck, and Ryan jumped over the wall, with their legs easily clearing over the wall and then some. These were Griff's friends, his lackeys, and his gang.
"Unless, of course, you have Red Teqx like us."
Ryan showed off his new legs by squatting his legs until his shins suddenly bulged and bulged until it had turned into disc-like layers. He smiled as all the tension and power in his legs suddenly exploded and launched him tens of meters into the air. He surged through the air like a cannonball, leaving a storm of dust on the ground.
"Do you like your new D-class Spring Legs Teqx?" Griff asked Ryan.
Still high up in the air, Ryan answered, "I feel stronger than ever."
"How about you, Buck?"
Buck then performed a perfect overhead kick, and in doing so, the power of his kick suddenly summoned a flame that covered his whole leg.
His years of training taekwondo and other martial arts were starting to reach their limits. He found out that his mortal body can't improve his power any further, and this frustrated him to no end. But now with the power he was given, he has transcended his limits.
His black belt proved that his kicks were powerful before, but with the addition of this new flame, the destruction he can exert was beyond that of a normal human. A punching bag would be burnt and cut in half with just one swipe of his legs.
"I'm HOT! HOT! HOT!"
"That's a D-class Flame Kick Teqx for you," Griff commented.
"Now it's my turn," Jack suddenly kicked the ground so hard that a large piece of soil was uprooted. Strangely though, the soil floated just on top of his foot like it was a miniature floating island. Then, with his other leg, Jack kicked the soil and shot directly towards Grammo.
Somehow, Jack's kick solidified the soil and made it so much denser that it was before. It was not as small as a fist, but its density was almost equal to that of steel. Grammo didn't have time to react as the dense ball of soil grazed past his cheeks and continued until it crashed on the wall behind him.
Grammo winced as blood trickled from his cut cheek.
"You're horrible," Grammo cried out.
Griff shook his head, disagreeing with Grammo's description of him. "I'm quite generous, if you ask me."
"You bribed the judges…you knew about the bet…" Grammo frowned in anger. He couldn't believe that Griff would go as far as to sabotage the competition. And for what? Just to torment and make fun of Grammo? He used his Money and Fame to play like god and change the fate of a simple man who just wanted to sing.
"Nothing happens in our classroom without me knowing about it!" Griff shouted. "You didn't think that I would just let you run around and be as stubborn as a child, right? Be an adult and give up on that silly dream of yours!"
"I just want to sing," Grammo repeated.
"And I am telling you that you are not meant to be a singer! Why are you so stubborn and hardheaded to talk to?!"
"I just…I want…"
Griff got up from his seat and walked over to Grammo. "In time, you'll understand that I am only trying to help you."
Although he sounded sincere, Grammo knew that it was nothing but bullcrap. Griff had absolutely no intentions to help, he just wanted to be a bully. He deprived happiness off of others because that was what bullies do. It was in their nature.
"At the end of the week, you and that lazy bum Patty will be expelled from this school for good. By then, I hope you learn that you should have listened to everyone around you and stopped being stubborn."
Grammo looked at Griff dead in the eye. "What did you do to Patty? He didn't do anything to you."
Griff didn't like the defiant look in Grammo's eyes. "He's out there somewhere. He can't save you now. I made sure of that."
He went so far as to go to the Sunverk Company and demand that they recruit Patty into the company. With his pull as the only inheritor of Sonny Sunverk, the rest of the employees had to make sure that he got what he needed. Within just minutes, they were able to write the paperwork to send to the school for Patty to check.
He knew full well that Patty would be forced to read and write his signature on thousands of papers in the Counselor's office. And not only that, to prevent other complications, he also made sure to get rid of the Counselor herself during the day with the excuse that she was needed for an interview with the Sunverk Company.
After that, it was easy to bribe students to make sure that Patty stayed in that office.
"Who cares about that lazy bum!" Jack sneered.
"I wish he was here, too. That way, I can burn that lazy smirk off his face," Buck added.
"Why didn't we just kill two birds with one stone and deal with both of them right now?" asked Ryan.
Only Griff knew the reason why. He was afraid. Those three meatheads didn't understand the danger that he felt that day. He could still remember the cold sweat pouring down his back when he looked at Patty and felt as if his every move was broadcasted to him as clear as the skies. He felt outclassed in every way possible.
Those three lackeys were lacking in training. If they were trained by his father just like he was, then they would understand the dangers in having someone read your every move. It was basically a sign that you would lose the fight even before it even began. And in a dog-eat-dog world, knowing you would lose against an opponent was the most dangerous thing to experience.
He went through all of this trouble, precisely because he didn't want to fight against Patty. He was the reason why they were here in a discrete location where no one could find them. He was the reason why he forced the Sunverk Company to recruit an underperforming student like Patty, just so that he wouldn't be here.
And just to be safe, he even gave those three meatheads their new Teqx powers as a failsafe.
Even if his fears of Patty was unfounded, his father told him that he should crush his enemies using all of his power, even if they were weak or strong. If Patty overcame all of that and came here to rescue Grammo, then he would be crushed until all of his hope and lazy optimism was beat out of his body.
"What do you want with me?" Grammo weakly asked.
Griff then smiled. "Don't be so worried. I just want to give you something."
—------------------
Sam was walking through the hallways with papers neatly placed into his folder. He was getting ready to meet Professor Mortimer Wraithborne for an opportunity to be picked for an internship from a company sponsored by the school itself. Just like before, he cannot be late. The professor already forgave him for being late last time, so was his last time.
But just as he was about to turn into a corner, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw some students out the window. This weirded him out because there weren't usually any students there because nobody even knows how to get there.
"Is that Griff Sunverk?"